


Her Warmth Lingers

by TorterraGarden



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, as usual in my fics mc has a name, based on jaehee's christmas ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 04:52:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17155670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TorterraGarden/pseuds/TorterraGarden
Summary: Jaehee reflects on how she spent her Christmas





	Her Warmth Lingers

The hot chocolate was at a perfect temperature when Jaehee woke up. Not so hot that it would burn her tongue, but just enough that it seemed to warm her from the inside out when she drank it. It couldn’t have been sitting on her desk for long. She was alone in the office, so whoever put it there must have left soon after. It was good hot chocolate. Sweet with a slightly bitter edge, topped with cinnamon sprinkles and whipped cream that had melted a bit by the time Jaehee could drink it, which made it richer and smoother going down. Who had made it? Sometimes Mr. Han brought coffee to her desk when they were both working late, but she couldn’t imagine he would make her this.

Jaehee knew who she wanted to imagine it was.

Could it have been Seunghee? Jaehee had to go back to the office as soon as the Christmas fundraiser was over, leaving Seunghee to clean up and dismantle it along with Yoosung. It was possible that Seunghee had come here after she had finished, hoping to find Jaehee awake. Jaehee hoped she wasn’t too disappointed with Jaehee for leaving early. It wasn’t that Jaehee had wanted to. Mr. Han had given her a new and apparently important task at the last minute, forcing Jaehee to return to the office and work late. Jaehee would much rather have spent the rest of her night with Seunghee, maybe drinking hot chocolate with her in a café.

What time was it? Jaehee felt guilty for having fallen asleep when she was supposed to be working, but there was no one around to reprimand her. It was still dark out, Jaehee couldn’t have been asleep for too long. Looking at her phone, she found that only a few hours had passed since she had arrived at the office. She still had time to get her work done. Her eyes drifted to a new pile of documents that had definitely not been on her desk when she got here. Whoever left the hot chocolate must have also left that. So maybe it was Mr. Han. Or some other office worker who had since left. 

Jaehee put her hands around her mug, feeling calmed by its warmness. She still thought it was Seunghee, somehow.

Maybe she only felt that way because she had been dreaming of Seunghee before she had woken up. She felt herself blush as she thought about it. The details were fuzzy, but she remembered Seunghee’s smile in the dream, the way her eyes sparkled when she looked at Jaehee. She remembered how good she had felt just to be close to Seunghee, how just her proximity gave her butterflies. She remembered how safe and happy she had felt in Seunghee’s arms when she hugged Jaehee. Even upon waking, Jaehee could still feel Seunghee’s warmth around her. It lingered in the air and made Jaehee’s skin tingle pleasantly.

What was it about Seunghee’s presence that was so thrilling, yet so comfortable? Even outside of her dream, Jaehee had felt like this. When Seunghee had come to their event to help them, Jaehee could barely contain her nervous excitement. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been so happy to see someone. It was a bit embarrassing to say, or even think about it, but Jaehee realized how much she had come to rely on Seunghee since she had joined the RFA. Her words of support, her spirit and enthusiasm, even the way she would casually touch Jaehee’s arm when she noticed that Jaehee was getting tired as they worked, and how just this simple gesture was enough to keep Jaehee going.

At first Jaehee had thought that she and Seunghee had taken to each other so much because they were the only women in the organization. Of course they would look out for each other. But seeing Seunghee tonight, Jaehee had started to wonder… maybe there was something else to it. 

The way Jaehee had felt when she realized that the woman in front of her was Seunghee, it was a deeper kind of happiness than she had felt in a long time. They had all looked forward to meeting Seunghee, had all wondered what she might be like, but to actually see her with her own eyes had made Jaehee’s heart race. Had Seunghee felt the same excitement? She had stayed by Jaehee’s side as much as she could as they worked. There wasn’t much time for them to chat properly, but they managed to squeeze in a few minutes here and there. Jaehee couldn’t stop thinking about how pretty Seunghee looked as they worked. Something about her was captivating, something about her smile and her eyes. Something that was uniquely her, a certain energy that she put out, seemed to imbue the event with new life, so that even though Jaehee and Yoosung were exhausted by this point they felt revitalized.

The event seemed to pass in no time at all, and when it was over Jaehee was filled with an aching sadness that seemed disproportionate to what she expected she would feel. After all of their hard work, the event closing down should have been a bittersweet release, similar to the ending of an RFA party. But this just felt bitter. Knowing that she would have to return to the office to complete a new task by morning was bad enough, but on top of that she would have to leave Seunghee, instead of joining her and Yoosung for drinks as they had talked about doing. _Don’t be so dramatic_ , Jaehee had told herself. It wasn’t like this was the last time she would ever see Seunghee, or like they wouldn’t still be able to talk to each other in the chatroom or on the phone. They might see each other again very soon, probably at Jaehee’s birthday, which was only a few days away. This was only a temporary goodbye. It was nothing to get too upset about. It was a silly thing to be upset about.

Seunghee looked sad when Jaehee announced that it was time to go back to the office too. She hoped Seunghee knew that leaving was the last thing Jaehee had wanted to do. It seemed like she had understood, when she had talked to her and Mr. Han in the chatroom earlier. Mr. Han had arrived at the event shortly after Jaehee had left, but maybe he followed Jaehee to the office to give her these new documents, and maybe the hot chocolate was his way of trying to make up for making her work late on Christmas, though that wasn’t his style. Jaehee had worked late last Christmas too, and she hadn’t gotten a kind gesture like that from him. 

Although last year, working late had been Jaehee’s choice. Last year, she hadn’t had anyone she particularly wanted to spend Christmas with. In fact, she had disliked the pressure and expectations that came with Christmas, how it was supposed to be a special day spent with special people. Jaehee hadn’t had anything like that since her parents were alive, and the holiday festivities only made her feel lonelier. Work had been a welcome distraction last year. How things had changed, since Seunghee’s arrival. Suddenly she felt like she had been cheated out of a Christmas, instead of actively trying to avoid one. Well. There was always next year. Seunghee had already said she would like to spend Christmas with Jaehee next year. Jaehee hoped that Seunghee meant what she said.

She knew she should get back to work. She had wasted enough time sleeping, and there was still so much to do. Instead of pulling the documents closer to her, as she had meant to do, she found herself picking up her phone. She wanted to see if Seunghee was online. She wanted to know if there was any possibility that she had been the one who left the hot chocolate.

Seunghee wasn’t online. No one was online, but Jaehee let her thoughts out anyway. She talked about the hot chocolate, and she talked about the dream she had about Seunghee, which she surely wouldn’t have done if it hadn’t been so late at night, and if she hadn’t been feeling so sentimental. Everyone will see this. She thought about it even as she wrote the words, but she didn’t care who saw it, as long as Seunghee was one of them. She wanted Seunghee to know.

_Perhaps I’ve developed feelings for you without realizing._

Her breath hitched as she hit send. There was no taking it back now. Luciel never added that message deleting feature she had requested a while ago. That was fine. She wouldn’t want to take it back even if she could. She put down her phone. She wondered what Seunghee would think when she read it. Did she feel the same way? Jaehee might have to wait until morning to find out. It was a good thing that Jaehee was known for her patience. 

She drank the last of her hot chocolate, sighing slightly as she did. She could get through the rest of her work, as long as that warmth still lingered.


End file.
